The present invention relates to dough processing apparatus and, in particular, to an automatic and continuous dough processing apparatus which embosses designs into wads of dough formed in predetermined masses.
Dough processing apparatuses, known in the prior art and of which we are aware, are adapted to provide a decorative design or place food matter such as seeds upon the upper surface of dough wads contained in pans adapted therefor prior to their placement in a baking oven. In the prior art, designs or food matter were provided by several manufacturers on the upper surface of the dough wads as a distinctive indicia so as to enable the consumer to distinguish his product from similar products made by other manufacturers.
The embossing provided by the present invention simulates the design created by the hand braiding of dough in manufacturing certain types of bread loaves, such as for example, in the manufacture of traditional Jewish bread known as "challah". Thus, by utilizing the embossing principle of the present invention, hand braided bread loaves may be manufactured in an automatic and continuous fashion with much less time spent in preparing each loaf.
The principles of the present invention may also be applied to embossing loaves of bread for aesthetic reasons as well as for dividing a predetermined dough mass into specific numbers, e.g., one dozen, two dozen, etc. of smaller sections which when broken apart after baking form, as an example, a conventional dinner roll.